BURCA TEKİN-11535024-COLOSSAL 117

Miniature Displays of
Contemporary Urban Buildings
Working at 1:20 scale, artist Joshua Smith builds in-depth works that
capture the layered existences of urban environments in cities such as
Hong Kong, Sydney, and Los Angeles. His miniature buildings showcase
the details and detritus left by the diverse population of each
city, bringing in elements of the city’s workers, inhabitants, and street
artists. These marks can be seen through heavily graffitied exteriors,
and thoughtful additions like a small table on the roof of one building
with takeout food from the tiny Chinese restaurant below.
Smith has been working on this series for the last two years, after
stints as both a stencil artist and gallerist. Using several reference
photos from a building’s actual site, he utilizes MDF, cardboard, and
plastic to create the base of the work, and chooses paint and chalk
pastels for the exterior’s details. Smith’s newest four-story work took
him three months to complete, often working 8-16 hours a day.